HI There - In downtown Oakland yesterday, I was intrigued by the I Magnin building, the site of a former hi-tone jewelry and fashion store, located near the Paramount Theater on Broadway. It's an interesting building with jade-like tile exterior. Although noonday sun is usually boring for a photograph, in this case it highlighted the texture of the building. Of the several images I took, I liked this one the best because of the jutting shapes in the composition.

Often an image image looks great right out of the camera, but can be even better with a little tender loving curves. Perhaps this image is in that category.

By "the burned out highlight on the left" do you mean in the whitish roof/canopy structure in the lower left hand corner?I was seeing the white portion as the true color and the brown/beige as discoloration, but I think yours is probably the correct interpretation.You did a nice job of retrieving and emphasizing the textures in the building. (I've been working on a version which intentionally blows out parts of the building, so we'll see what that looks like...)

Art

P.S. How do feel about saturating the colors a bit more in your version?

Ah, this shows me what's wrong with my version - still not enough contrast in certain areas.

The supersaturated yellow is a brilliant touch, as is the up-close-and-personal crop.

Also, Martin, I seem to have somehow missed your version on first look. You've really brought out the special quality of the light, and the textures the eye doesn't necessarily notice in the original -- but I think you've made it slightly later in the afternoon